Cappella delle Suore dell'Addolorata e della Santa Croce
'Cappella delle Suore dell'Addolorata e della Santa Croce '''is a later 20th century convent chapel with a postal address at Via del Fontanile Arenato 277 in the Gianicolense suburban district. The chapel is at Via dei Brusati 84, the parallel street to the east. History The "Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows and of the Cross" (Suore dell'Addolorata e della Santa Croce) were founded in 1812 at Torre del Greco near Naples. Like many similar congregations of active religious, this one began rather casually when a local priest, Don Giuseppe Brancaccio, organised a group of female volunteers to help with the support, education and catechesis of poor children. The community that resulted had to wait until 1927 before it received diocesan approval, and has always been small. The congregation received a pontifical Decree of Praise in 1949, and went on to establish a large Generalate (headquarters) at Rome after establishing a missionary outreach in Brazil. In 2019, the Diocese listed 51 sisters (three at Rome) in twelve convents. This hardly justifies a large Generalate so the congregation has done what many others in Rome have also done, and converted most of it into a holiday hotel (''Casa per ferie) called the Oasi San Giuseppe. Exterior The complex comprises three large blocks standing roughly (but not quite) parallel, two flanking a central cloister garden and one in between end-on to it. The latter is four-storey, the others have three storeys. The fabric is in pale yellowish reinforced concrete with the framework showing, and the infill is mostly in pink brick with some red. The roofs are pitched and tiled. The three blocks are connected by a covered corridor running round two sides of the cloister garden. The chapel is large, and is entirely separate from the convent. It stands over a crypt which is partly above ground level. The plan is rectangular, with five bays. The bays are marked by vertical yellowish concrete piers including at the corners, and in the right hand side wall these are flanked on their far sides by vertical clear window strips which meet horizontal window strips below the roof eaves. The floor-line, also marking the roof of a crypt, is marked by a horizontal beam with which these piers meld, and below this is a second set of horizontal window strips which light the crypt. The roof is shallowly pitched and tiled. The left hand side wall is occupied by an annexe with a single-pitched roof, separated from the main roof by a row of window strips. The back wall is blank, except for a crypt window strip, and the gable here is occupied by a large triangular window. The corner piers have an inverted taper, and meld with a massive shallowly angled V-beam in the gable which also tapers towards the central angle. A matching window exists in the frontage, which also has a blank wall and tapering beams and piers. There is a little square open-fronted porch protecting the single entrance, which has its own gabled and tiled roof. Interior Nave The interior is large enough to serve as a modern parish church. The bays are divided by the same design of piers and V-beams as are visible in the exterior front and back, except that they are in a pale green. The walls are otherwise in white. The floor is in highly polished pale grey terrazzo tiles, with a central red strip flanked by two black lines edged in white. The large window over the entrance features saints. The roof in between the support beams is planked in transverse pine planks. Sanctuary The sanctuary floor is in red marble, raised on two steps. Behind the free-standing altar the back wall is fronted by a row of tall vertical slabs of pink marble of varying heights, the central ones radiating like a fan behind the tabernacle. The latter is also enclosed by a pair of free-standing greyish-green L-shaped pillars, leaning out to each side and with their smaller lengths rising above the tabernacle. The large stained glass window in the gable is in mostly in blue, and contains Christian symbols. The high-quality grey-streaked white marble sanctuary furniture comprise the altar on a cylindrical pedestal, a lectern to the left and three chairs for the ministers to the right. These are all inlaid decoratively in red and green marble. External links Official diocesan web-page of congregation Hotel website Info.roma web-page